In North America we definitely have perfected the ‘Active House’ principle and it has nothing to do with families with kids!  So what is Passivhaus or Passive House?  Passive House is a sustainability initiative focused solely on energy efficiency and occupant comfort through smart passive design.  Created in 1991 in Germany, the movement has grown to Austria, all over Europe, and now all over the world.  Most importantly, it is not just focused on homes- the house just comes from the literal translation from German- it spans all building types. Passive House is a set of guidelines, not a rating system like LEED.  The guidelines are broken down into a couple of foci:

1. Smart Planning- smart planning is vital to good passive design including compact architecture to save as much energy as possible, solar orientation to harvest as much solar energy as possible, integrated planning for envelope, heating, and ventilation, and more.

2. Energy Density- energy is based on use per area per year (kwh/sqm/year) instead of a percentage reduction off of a fictional baseline like ASHRAE and MNECB.  This provides a true energy use number.  The allowances are strict-

• 15 kwh/sqm/year for heating (50-75% less than current Canadian standard)
• 18 kwh/sqm/year for electricity (50-75% less than current Canadian standard)
• 120 kwh/sqm/year as a factor for primary energy which takes into account ‘embedded energy’ of energy loss from efficiency of production and electrical grid loss

3. Insulation Values- high effective insulation values are vital to passive design.

• Wall and Roof required minimum R-38 (2x current Canadian standard) which equates to approximately a 14” wide wall!
• Window required minimum R-7.1 (currently none available in Canada) which is an effective value which includes the frame and triple glazing minimum.

4. Air Tightness- air leakage is a huge source of waste in heating and cooling.  All buildings must pass a pressurization test to ensure the envelope is sealed correctly.

What does a Passive House look like?  We have a registered Passive House right around the corner in Whistler!  Unlike the sad effort at the Canadian Pavilion, the Austrians built the Austria House for the 2010 Olympics and it was done with quality and actually exceeds base Passive House criteria.  Whether you like the architecture or not, it’s an impressive feat- check it out! Austria Passive House 2010 Whistler- http://austria-passive-house-whistler-2010.blogspot.com/
 
Want to take on the challenge?  It is aggressive and it is just that- challenging.  The Passive House Institute Canada is a great source for education, outreach, and the Passive House Planning Package (must read).  Members of the institute have worked with the City of Vancouver to craft the Passive Design Toolkit which is another must read. Passive House Canada- http://www.passivehouse.ca/frontpage.  To find more about the foundation movement checkout the Passive House Institute Europe- http://www.passiv.de/English/PassiveH.HTM.
Even if we can’t meet the aggressive targets on our projects, we should take the fundamentals of the approach to heart as part of our design process at Omicron. 

What could we do in our projects? 
Is it a good idea?
Are there bad ideas about the guidelines?
Other thoughts?

Please comment!!!